HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Local, state, and federal law enforcement officers arrested 37 people in Harris County Wednesday morning in a ‘massive operation’ after a two-year long bail bond fraud investigation described by law enforcement personnel with direct knowledge of the case as “colossal.”
The arrests followed the federal indictment of 53 individuals, law enforcement officials said. They’re accused of wire fraud and conspiracy after the investigation exposed fraud within the bail bond industry involving Harris County suspects tied to several recent high-profile criminal cases.
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The alleged scheme involved AABLE Bonds in downtown Houston, where the FBI executed a search warrant in June 2022.
According to the indictment, employees of AABLE Bonds conspired with others to falsify and obtain falsified co-signer financial reports. This was allegedly done to qualify individuals charged with criminal offenses who would not otherwise qualify for what was necessary to meet the terms of their bond.
How the scheme operated
According to investigators, after an individual got arrested, they’d call an employee at the bonding company from jail and the employee would assess if the defendant could be trusted. The company would then provide them co-signers if they didn’t have any. If they did have co-signers, a lot of times those individuals didn’t have jobs, so the employee at the company would provide false financial documents to the co-signers.
Eventually, co-signers would come in to sign paperwork with false check stubs, officials said, then submit paperwork to the insurance company which backed the company’s surety bonds. Believing those documents to be true, the bonds would be approved, and the defendant would be let out of jail fraudulently on a bond they shouldn’t have obtained because the co-signers didn’t have proper income to back the bond, law enforcement officials said.
Employees of AABLE Bonds, including Mary Brown, 29, and Oscar Wattell, 34, both of Houston, are accused of recruited the straw co-signers.
Sheba Muharib, 58, Missouri City, is charged with affecting persons engaged in the business of insurance. Investigators say Muharib knew Wattell had a criminal felony conviction involving dishonesty while engaging in the business of insurance.
If convicted, each faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine for the wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges. Muharib could receive up to five years in prison and a $250,000 possible fine upon conviction.